Over 200 works displayed, tracing the history of the "Venetian Big Concert"

Venice July 12, 2014

It was inaugurated today in the former Church of Santa Marta in Venice, the exhibition dedicated to the Pink Floyd concert on 15 July 1989. And who better than Fran Tomasi could inaugurate "The Night Of Wonders"? Yes he, the creator and organizer of the huge music festival in Venice.

Tomasi, at the time, was one of the most important music promoters, has managed to bring to Italy the biggest rock bands in the world, from Lou Reed to the Rolling Stones, Sting Bruce Springsteen. He is also the man who devised the operation plate for the Olympic stadium in Rome, at the end of the football World Cup. In short, a character with many stories to tell. Although the Pink Floyd concert of 15 July 1989 created huge controversy, Francesco Tomasi, aka Fran, has never repented of having organized this colossal and unique concert that judges, after 25 years, an unrepeatable spectacle.

The exhibition is divided into sections, the tour of Verona in 1989, the origins of the Venetian project with the preparation, the days immediately preceding the concert and the event, up to the concert of Gilmour in 2006. Material comes from professional photographers worked directly in those days, as Guido Harari and Vision Venice Marco Sabbadin and Andrea Pattaro, but also a lot of pictures that come from the fans, as Bob Hassall, who was present on stage. They were selected out of almost 600 shots. A year of work to develop the material to be exhibited.

There are very rare memorabilia, like a poster that was never exposed because the organizers feared that he would attract too many people. Visitors to the exhibition will also see the pictures of the concert projected on a large screen and other video clips of those days on smaller screens. On the walls, there are many examples of famous and not so famous, who attended the concert and wide press coverage at the time, both Italian and foreign. In addition to photographic material, there are works such as the famous Martelli of Marco Lodola, the cloth sculptures of Stefano Bressani and the winners of the online competition created and designed by sculptor painter Grace Marino aka Dadagabem: "The idea was born - Grace Marino points out - for fans and the artists related to Pink Floyd culture, who are many and very good. The selection was made online and were chosen two authors, already well known in the art: Valerio Scarapazzi with Astronomy Domine and Aldo Claudio Medorini with Shine on your Crazy Diamond. To promote young talent has been chosen Giorgia Lembo with Young David Gilmour who is only 19 years." Dadagabem, for the occasion, created a work dedicated to the event titled Crazy Diamond.

In the exhibition, it was displayed "Chit Chat With Oysters" by Adrian Maben, the new unreleased documentary on the band. Fifty-minute black and white film at the studio Europa-Sonor in Paris in December 1971 during the processing to the master of "Echoes" recorded in Pompeii few months earlier.

Alberto Durgante, president of Floydseum thanked Fran Tomasi, Adrian Maben, members of the Floydseum, particularly the vice president Gian Luigi Soldi, all the guests, artists and his staff, reminding that on July 15 there will be the "commemorative cancellation stamp". A stand, just in front of the gates of "The Night Of Wonders", where it will be printed the postmark on the postcards created by Floydseum to be purchased directly at the show, throughout the day.

Vision Photojournalism is active in the historic center of Venice since 1984. Agency is directed by Andrea Pattaro and Marco Sabadin, photojournalists specializing in news and current affairs for daily newspapers. Following the record in the historic center for Il Corriere del Veneto (back of the Corriere della Sera), collaborates with the Corriere della Sera, and the corresponding French News Agency AFP.

Guido Harari has become in the early seventies a photographer and music journalist, working with numerous magazines and record companies. Today it operates in the report, the institutional portrait, fashion and advertising, as well as signing the curating of exhibitions and books, of which even care by the time the entire project, from editing to graphic design.

It was also one of the curators of the exhibition of multimedia Fabrizio De André, produced by Palazzo Ducale in Genoa. Genoese artist, which for decades has been one of the photographers personal, devoted three books: "Fabrizio De André. E poi, il futuro" (2001), "Fabrizio De André. Una goccia di splendore" (2007 ) and "Fabrizio De André & PFM. Evaporati in una nuvola rock" (with Franz Di Ciocco, 2008).

In 2011 he opened in Alba, Piedmont, where she has lived for years, its a photo gallery, Wall Of Sound Gallery, devoted entirely to the imaginary music. In 2013 he was a guest of the exhibition "Outside The Wall", organized by the Floydseum in Padua, where he was able to photograph Mr Gerald Scarfe in person!

DURGA MC-BROOM-HUDSON (Pink Floyd vocalist on Venice stage) "... When we took the stage, suddenly we were all greeted with a miraculous sight. HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of people were everywhere - in small vessels and gondolas in the water between the stage and the Piazza, all illuminated with glittering candles, a floating carpet of light. Then, hanging off of the buildings and filling the Piazza to bursting were people as far as the eye could see...." COME TO "THE NIGHT OF WONDERS" exhibition to read the full memory of Durga!

The night of pure rock wonder: Floydseum celebrates quarter century of Pink Floyd in Venice!

On July 15, 1989, a historic day which marked a generation, even in television: Pink Floyd on a floating stage in the lagoon of Venice and all over the world connected with RAI1.

The night of wonders from the 12th of July

The exhibition Outside the Wall (organized by Floydseum) in Padua charms: so we wrote last year to tell you about those days at the Cultural Center Altinate San Gaetano before the Roger Waters concert. The extreme satisfaction with the success of the event, culminating in discussions about what to organize for the 25th anniversary concert of the Venetian. Long awaited news finally arrived and now. Says our diretur Giancarlo Passarella...

It will be officially presented on 27 April in Brescia in "Pink Floyd Day II", is the dream of seven three-dimensional keen collectors of the British band...

There are gadgets that refer to Arnold Layne (the first single released in 1967), even stethoscopes (Take up thy Stethoscope and Walk) or bicycle with basket and bell (Bike, excerpts from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn) but certainly hundreds of other memorabilia, all very rare, if not unique. With the noble aim of the music and tell the forty-year career of one of the bands that helped to write the history of Rock. They, Pink Floyd, entered by time in museums in Cleveland in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (1996) and, in London, in the form of murals from '67, the Wax Museum Madame Tussaud's, along with other characters in the swing in 'London time. But it is the first time that Waters and his associates are seen dedicated an entire "virtual museum" where adoring fans and curious music lovers can enjoy and admire pieces (very rare) from private collections, jealously kept secret until today.